My ex (23M) and I (25F) are in medical school together and love each other very much, but I was recently dumped by him and I don't know what to do.
He has a very complicated family life and has difficulty talking about it. Last week something seems to have taken a turn for the worse and he very abruptly broke up with me stating that it was related to these issues and he cannot be in a relationship right now. He was visibly upset while we broke up and while we haven't spoken since I have heard from mutual friends that he is struggling, his parents are also now in our city (they live about 4 hours away) so I do believe that something serious is going on in their family.
I am feeling a mix of emotions, being hurt that he doesn't feel like he can trust or rely on me through these issues, empathy for the situation he is in, and fear that these issues will never be resolved and as a result we won't ever be able to be together. Ultimately I know that I want to be with him, and build a life with him once we graduate.
I want to give him the space he needs and take time myself to heal as I am very hurt and barely functioning. However, the amount of time we have left in medical school is worrying me. We have to decide where we want to do our medical residencies (how a doctor specializes) in about 7 months and I am worried that we will end up in completely different cities or across the country from each other if we do not go through the process together. Residency is generally 5 years long in the country I am from, so this would change our lives for the next 1/2 decade and before this we we're planning to do everything we could to secure residency spots in the same city or as close as we can get.
All of this is to say, I don't know how to balance wanting to give him the space/time we need while making the most of our limited time before having to make a life altering decision about where we go for residency. Any advice is very appreciated.
